macOS 15 Sequoia on Unsupported Macs Thread

[flagers]

At the time of writing, we are waiting for Apple to send out macOS 15 Developer Beta 1. It is currently unknown whether or not Apple will release a publicly-downloadable InstallAssistant.

We will be expanding this thread with much more information as the day goes by including known issues as well as patcher support.

Spoiler: Macs officially compatible with macOS 15 Sequoia

iMac	2019 and later
	iMac19,x iMac20,x
iMac Pro	2017 and later
	iMacPro1,1
Mac Studio	2022
MacBook Air	2020 and later
	MacBookAir9,1
Mac mini	2018 and later
	Macmini8,1
MacBook Pro	2018 and later
	MacBookPro15,x MacBookPro16,x
Mac Pro	2019 and later
	MacPro7,1

Spoiler: Macs that WILL NOT BE SUPPORTED in any capacity by Apple

• 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis:
  • MacPro1,1
  • MacPro2,1
  • iMac4,1
  • iMac5,x
  • iMac6,1
  • iMac7,1 (Merom CPU swappable to Penryn)
  • MacBookPro1,1
  • MacBookPro2,1
  • MacBookPro3,1
  • Macmini1,1
  • Macmini2,1
• 2006-2008 MacBooks:
  • MacBook1,1
  • MacBook2,1
  • MacBook3,1
  • MacBook4,1
• 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)
• All PowerPC-based Macs
• All 68k-based Macs

 

[stcm]

Our challenge has begun again.

 

[flagers]

The fun begins!

 

[jshayya0184]

here we go!

 

[kocoman]

so is intel still supported? without the AI stuff ?

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

Official device support. Thank god they kept intel machines. Heres to a new year of patchers lets go baby.

 

[MisterAndrew]

It looks like all T2 chip Intel Macs are supported, and the T2 chip is required for iPhone Mirroring. It will be interesting to see what features can and cannot be unlocked on non-T2 Intel Macs (or if it will run at all).

 

[jshayya0184]

It looks like all T2 chip Intel Macs are supported, and the T2 chip is required for iPhone Mirroring. It will be interesting to see what features can and cannot be unlocked on non-T2 Intel Macs (or if it will run at all).

Actually, since the 2019 iMac is still supported, it means that the T2 chip isn't needed to run the OS. So that's a plus.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Actually, since the 2019 iMac is still supported, it means that the T2 chip isn't needed to run the OS. So that's a plus.

Awesome! I didn't know the 2019 iMac doesn't have a T2 chip.

Mac computers with the Apple T2 Security Chip - Apple Support

Learn which Mac computers have the Apple T2 Security Chip.

support.apple.com

 

[Larsvonhier]

Awesome! I didn't know the 2019 iMac doesn't have a T2 chip.

Mac computers with the Apple T2 Security Chip - Apple Support

Learn which Mac computers have the Apple T2 Security Chip.

support.apple.com

Mactracker is the tool of the day today ;-)

 

[StefanAM]

macOS 15.0 Beta 1 (24A5264n): https://swcdn.apple.com/content/dow...zcxnr1u85utqhl124vmsph1c/InstallAssistant.pkg

 

[wellander1]

It looks like only some MacBook airs were dropped. Am I wrong?

 

[padams35]

Would people say this summery is accurate?


Pre-SSE4: Limited to El Captain and older.

SSE4, Pre-Metal: Can officially run or be patched to run High Sierra, no issues. Increasing issues onward. Installation discretions advised for... BigSur or later?

Metal, Pre-AVX2: Can officially run or be patched to run Monterey, no issues. Increasing issues onward. Installation discretions advised for... Sonoma or later?

AVX2, Pre-10b: Can officially run or be patched to run Ventura, no issues. Increasing issues onward.

H.265 10-bit GPU decoding: Can officially run or be patched to run Sonoma (and Sequoia?), no issues.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Would people say this summery is accurate?


Pre-SSE4: Limited to El Captain and older.

SSE4, Pre-Metal: Can officially run or be patched to run High Sierra, no issues. Increasing issues onward. Not recommended for BigSur+ (but somebody will probably run Sequoia because they can)

Metal, Pre-AVX2: Can officially run or be patched to run Monterey, no issues. Increasing issues onward. Not recommended for Sonoma+, except maybe for systems upgraded with an HEVC compatible GPU.

AVX2, Pre-10b: Can officially run or be patched to run Ventura, no issues. Increasing issues onward.

H.265 10-bit GPU decoding: Can officially run or be patched to run Sonoma (and Sequoia?), no issues.

Oh, please, not all over this discussion again. Tired already...
("not recommended", "...because they can").

 

[Heindijs]

I don't think this'll be as big of a mess as Ventura was. Seeing as the requirements haven't changed that much compared to Sonoma.

However, Apple could always be hiding some nasty surprises deep in the system

 

[minik]

It looks like only some MacBook airs were dropped. Am I wrong?

I'm happy to see they dropped the 2018 and 2019 MacBook Air officially. Those era of MacBook Air were slow out of the box and to support retina display.

 

[padams35]

Oh, please, not all over this discussion again. Tired already...
("not recommended", "...because they can").

My bad, usability can be subjective, user tech savviness dependent, and I didn't specify a target audience.

Would "Known issues, installation discretions advised" make the hardware/support categorization otherwise reasonably accurate?

My intent was to expand a little on this quote from the macOS 14 Sonoma on Unsupported Macs Thread and try to identify approximately at what point in history each hardware group began to have unpatched bugs in core features.

We had this clearly defined Metal boarder which puts all no upgradable hardware released until late 2011 into the big non-metal camp. Now we have a 2nd group of 2012-2013 Macs including the MacPro6,1, Metal GPU upgraded MacPro3,1-4,1-5,1 and iMac10,1-12.2 all lacking of AVX2 support and a third group of legacy metal system from late 2013-2015 either with AMD GCN 1-3 and Nvidia Kepler dGPU, Intel HD4000 and Haswell iGPU with different and difficult to address issues.

 

[antibolo]

Looks like it supports only the very last Intel model of every product line, EXCEPT the MBP which covers an entire three generations of models (since there were new Intel models in 2018, 2019 and 2020)?

MBP strangeness aside, this seems pretty clearly like this is going to be the very last macOS available on Intel.

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

Looks like it supports only the very last Intel model of every product line, EXCEPT the MBP which covers an entire three generations of models (since there were new Intel models in 2018, 2019 and 2020)?

MBP strangeness aside, this seems pretty clearly like this is going to be the very last macOS available on Intel.

May get 2020 mac support one more time in 2025 but I would not be shocked if this is the last year of intel support and if they kill support next year.

 

[wellander1]

And imac.

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

Was there an intel mac pro in 2020 or is that when they finally switched the mac pro to Apple silicon? If there was one that may be the last intel we see that might be supported for a few more years.

 

[ROSeaboyer]

It looks like all T2 chip Intel Macs are supported, and the T2 chip is required for iPhone Mirroring. It will be interesting to see what features can and cannot be unlocked on non-T2 Intel Macs (or if it will run at all).

The 2018 and 2019 MBAs have T2, and they're not supported by Sequoia

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

The 2018 and 2019 MBAs have T2, and they're not supported by Sequoia

Yah that is interesting. I would say that maybe Apple thought they were not powerful enough to handle Mac OS Sequoia since both models were dual core and maybe kept support for the 2018 Macbook Pro and newer since those models feature quad core processors but in the end its probably to push people into getting devices with the silicon processors.

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

The 2018 and 2019 MBAs have T2, and they're not supported by Sequoia

Thats why I love these patchers that are made each year because not only does it support older macs but it also shows that the macs that Apple recently dropped IE: 2018-2019 macbook Airs still can run the latest os and did not really have to be cut off.

 

[Macdctr]

It's nice to see that there is still Intel support in OS 15. I know it is only a matter of time but for now I will be able to enjoy using my 2015 MBPs for a bit longer